How do you ask “who is this?” when someone knocks at your door in German?The story I've heard about le vasistas is different: The French, who are accustomed to large windows that let as much light into the interior as is possible (hence the term "French windows" in the English language), were puzzled at the smallness of the windows in German houses, especially the tiny tilt-hinge window in the bathroom. Being polite, they asked the natives in the local language, "Was ist das?" The term stuck and when they returned to France, they experimented with tiny windows themselves. Instead of inventing a new French word for these portholes, they re-used ... vasistas.

On verbal parenthesesO.K., so perhaps empirical studies of how comprehension of "verbal parentheses" is affected by their length would answer?

Jul18

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On verbal parenthesesThat is like asking whether there is a limit to large numbers that presents any sum from going to infinity :) Nor is there such a "legal limit" in language when it comes to sentence length. Or perhaps you are asking this because you encountered a German sentence or subclause that you felt was "too long"?

Correct cases in a composite complement involving more than a single prepositionDie Kinder gehen in die [S]traße vor dem Haus is not a well-formed German sentence. See my example (7) in the comment above -- auf, not in. I forgot that dative first followed by accusative is also possible: Die Kinder gehen von der Straße ins Haus hinein. Somebody with a penchant for organization ought to draw up a matrix that covers all case-combinations with the least amount of redundancy...

Jul16

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Correct cases in a composite complement involving more than a single preposition[cont'd] (6) "The kids are going into the house on Park Street." Die Kinder gehen ins Haus auf der Parkstraße (accusative then dative.) (7) "The kids are going into the street in front of the house." Die Kinder gehen auf die Straße vor dem Haus (acc. then dative) (8) "The kids are playing in the street in front of the house." Die Kinder spielen auf der Straße vor dem Haus (2x dative, see also example (1) above.) HTH

Jul16

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Correct cases in a composite complement involving more than a single prepositionSo, going out on a limb LOL: (1) "The kids are going out to play in the street in front of the house." Die Kinder gehen gerade raus, um auf der Straße vor dem Haus zu spielen (2x dative). (2) "The kids are going to the street in front of the house to play." Die Kinder gehen zum Spielen auf die Straße vor das Haus (2x acc.). (3) "The kids are walking up and down in front of the house." Die Kinder gehen vor dem Haus auf und ab (dat.) (4) "The kids are walking past the house." Die Kinder gehen am Haus vorbei (dat.) (5) "The kids are going into the house." Die K. gehen ins Haus (accus.)

Jul16

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Correct cases in a composite complement involving more than a single prepositionA sentence like, "The kids are walking in front of the fast food place on Main Street" might make sense if, for example, you had been asked as to their momentary whereabouts and you had a GPS tracker or a roomful of surveillance video that enabled you to give a precise answer instantly. But not really, as we would say "walking up and down in front of" (h/t Mac) or "walking past", not "walking in front of". So I would join Mac's plea for a different English sentence to serve as the starting point.